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Microsoft CFO Quits
McGruber writes "NBC News is reporting that Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein is leaving the company to spend time with his extended family, as Microsoft 'struggles with sharply declining personal computer sales and a lukewarm reception for its new Windows 8 operating system.' Klein is the latest in a line of top-level executives to leave the company, following Windows head Steven Sinofsky last November."
do the right thing.
It'd be bigger news if he quit for another company, while Microsoft is on the decline it's going to be a very slow death spread across
a decade or two. They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=msft+balance+sheet&annual
Have a squat over at the hobo house.
You should know by now that the Stock Market isn't a very good medium for judging anything; It's no different than a visit to Las Vegas. But, there use to be a time when you could invest in a Company because you cared about the Company and wanted to be a part in it's growing and have a say in what happened. I seriously doubt, these days, that people even know what Company they put money in; they are in and out so fast. We should take it back to that time, and ban all this lightening trading.
The truth is, Microsoft is dying. It's going to take a long time, but they will eventually bleed to death. We all knew it was coming, nothing lasts forever. Even if they did manage to put on a good show in the next year or so, It is inevitable that such a thing can't last.
It's a mystery to me why extremely rich men like Balmer continue with the daily drudgery of running a business like Microsoft. Personally I'd buy a huge yacht (inc. surface to air missiles) and sail around the world with a harem of supermodel concubines. For the rest of my natural life...
As CFO that would still leave him in deep shit as he signed them off as accurate before submitting them, the SEC won't accept an excuse that he was pressured. It would also leave him in a really bad situation where unless the next person in the job is willing to cover up for him (pretty unlikely) then his next job is going to be calculating his very large lawyer bills trying to keep his arse out of jail.
it is actually increasing in other markets faster than it's consumer desktop market is eroding.
I think we need to have a little look at those markets...because its a big fat failure on mobile.
Its started to make money on a subscription service for a....end of life console. Ignoring the fact that Microsoft is about to put a *TON* of money down on keeping in the console market, or that suddenly its getting competition from, mobile...the market its a big fat failure in, or steam...or the rise of disposable Android console gaming...Hell Sony might try to compete with a console costing costing less than its weight in gold (not that that is worth as much as it was).
Ok they are starting to make money from online office....hold the page, does that mean Office without Windows, running in a Web browser...in direct competition with Google, a company it repeatedly lose against...that it can't bribe or bully. Is this new market...or *the same* market that Office is only without the Windows Monopoly to prop it up, and won't this simply cannibalise current sales of Office.
Ok they are making more money in video/telephony software one of the reasons they are currently a big fat failure in mobile...because that is in direct competition with the carriers they are trying to sell to!? I am not sure if that is not a home goal.
Lastly Server Software http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240173199/Forrester-Microsoft-licence-hike-makes-no-sense price increases are a double edged sword, profitable in the short term, long term customers may look for low or free cost alternatives.
There is no way anyone can argue, that Microsoft has a bad quarter, but arguing these are new markets...or that they are more stable than its old monopoly, is simply not the case.
There's nothing really to see here. He's been CFO for over three years, been at the company for much longer. Why not cash in on his various options and enjoy his life?
The doom and gloom about Microsoft on here is all wishful thinking. PC Windows is on a decline in the marketplace and has been since the the iPhone/iPad changed the game. Android has accelerated this by making smart touch devices available at a lower price point. Microsoft are aware of this, the speed of change has caught them out and they are going to stumble a little before they make the right move.
In the long run Office will survive because its a standard, nothing else can claim this. Office 365 gives them the ability to make money from Office without owning the OS. This is the future of Microsoft. Google may have been doing this longer but Office is Office.
Cloud computing/storage is going to be a big money earner going forward. Microsoft have positioned themselves for this. Going forward they would rather provide Windows servers using Azure than sell the OS. As unit sales of Windows server decline, look to Microsoft aggressively market and price Azure as an alternative. Especially in the SME space. Why run your own servers when you can get a reliable DR capable cloud solution from Microsoft. This is where the market is heading.
Xbox Live. The next Xbox is going to be a money earner. They are currently making money with the current service. The new one should come in at a reasonable price and allow them to continue this. It will also leverage cloud based services.
Consumer Windows is the bad news. This will move to become a phone/tablet OS which is where the consumer market is going. The chances are that they will come good, they have a lot of smart people working there.
Oh, and before the accusations start I'm not a Microsoft shill. I've never bought a computer that runs Windows. I just like to look at things a little more realistically. I still expect to get modded down because that's what happens on Slashdot.
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
Can the people who killed the start menu / Metro apps in an window.
The UI was to big of a jump and to not have some kind of choice is real bad.
Also get rid of the app store only for metro apps.
that is usually when CFO's resign. IT is not like he is walking out the door now, he stays on till the end of the 4th quarter. now if he had left BEFORE the numbers then that is something that would be incredibly fishy as it would scream there was something in their he wasn't willing to put his name against.
No dick. The start button removal was a collective decision to use the only strategy MS knows: use the desktop monopoly to force their way into a mobile monopoly. If they could get punters to actually like Metro, then they'd like to see it on their mobiles as well...errr....or something....
So, XP level security and no UAC and no sandboxing in IE and other windows level engineering changes were not needed.
How about I just say you seem to have no idea about what you are talking about. And you _deserve_the modding down.
We`re all equal
I can agree to that. I don't really care if Microsoft can create record profits. I do care that I can install Linux now on almost every hardware and it will work. I do care about LibreOffice and open standards so that I can exchange documents freely. I do care about an open web.
With this for me important aspects of the software industry increasing year after year I couldn't be happier. 15 years ego it was all looking very dim for open source software and free standards. 15 years ego if you didn't used Windows you couldn't do any work and the IE and Microsoft Word and Excel was the "standard".
So yes, high fives everyone.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
He wears a suit, collects big pay check every month and takes home a big bonus, and is seen in his office once in a while. As a CEO he has done all that is expected of him. It is upto rest of the company to make progress and earn enough money to continue to pay him his exalted benefits. What more can he do? The raison d`etre for private companies is to earn money to pay their top executives. What part of that private enterprise you guys dont get?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact